Aspherical Fun

A couple of my recent builds.

The blue light is a Jesus Hernandez custom tri-bore 1.5D Mag using 3X17670 protected AW cells in an FM holder. It's running a Britelumens SST-90 sink with Cree XE-E R2 over driven with a Sandwich Shoppe S.O.B. 1200 and some GID epoxy. The aspherical lens is a CVI Melles Griot LAG-52.0-33.0-C-SLMF-400-700 using one of my bezels and tail cap.


The Copper Mag is stock 4D running four Tenergy D NiMh, a Malkoff XM-L drop-in, a Kaidomain 52mm X 34mm aspherical and again the bezel and cap are mine.

Cool lights and awesome pics
Thanks for sharing!

Glad you enjoyed it and thank you for looking :thumbsup:

hmmm VERY interesting. What sort of throw do you reckon you'd be looking at distance wise?

I only ask because my brother has been asked by a friend to build him a spotting light for hunting and is wanting a HID light. I know they're bright and throw really well but they seem like a lot of screwing around to me. Also, being an LED lover, I'm convinced you could get something smaller and more power efficient by doing something like what you have done above.

still kicking my *** every day for selling the SST 90 mag I had with your bezel and MG glass I got from you last year. BEAST of a light... Glad you posted these. Makes me hate myself more...

Mattaus said:

hmmm VERY interesting. What sort of throw do you reckon you'd be looking at distance wise?

I only ask because my brother has been asked by a friend to build him a spotting light for hunting and is wanting a HID light. I know they're bright and throw really well but they seem like a lot of screwing around to me. Also, being an LED lover, I'm convinced you could get something smaller and more power efficient by doing something like what you have done above.

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My guess would be 100yds max and still be decently effective. A couple of nights before the photo shoot I was messing around in the backyard and managed to light up a flying owl with the copper mag. For a moving target at 100 ft the Malkoff XM-L sure worked great.

My recommendation is to use the larger die emitters in order to get a larger spot to increase field of view. The XM-L @3amps maybe a little over driven or SST-90 around 6 to 7amps would be ideal. I use these examples because I actually intend to build them as my next asphericals.

As for HID lights they are great in terms of output, but the smaller ones, like my 35W MicroFire WarriorIII, just don't seem to throw all that well. Of course if we talking about the Polarion PH50 Helios 50W HID or my SunForce 25MCF 35W HID Spotlightbelow here then you will do just fine. The only down side is the Polarion price and the SunForce size. I have seen other HID lights out there with a managebel form factor and very reasonable price boasting some serious lumens like this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/251071011536?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649 last picture.

Hope that helps.

mikesantor said:

still kicking my *** every day for selling the SST 90 mag I had with your bezel and MG glass I got from you last year. BEAST of a light... Glad you posted these. Makes me hate myself more...

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Sorry to hear that, but you could always build another and then post the pics.

Nanomiser said:

My guess would be 100yds max and still be decently effective. A couple of nights before the photo shoot I was messing around in the backyard and managed to light up a flying owl with the copper mag. For a moving target at 100 ft the Malkoff XM-L sure worked great.

My recommendation is to use the larger die emitters in order to get a larger spot to increase field of view. The XM-L @3amps maybe a little over driven or SST-90 around 6 to 7amps would be ideal. I use these examples because I actually intend to build them as my next asphericals.

As for HID lights they are great in terms of output, but the smaller ones, like my 35W MicroFire WarriorIII, just don't seem to throw all that well. Of course if we talking about the Polarion PH50 Helios 50W HID or my SunForce 25MCF 35W HID Spotlightbelow here then you will do just fine. The only down side is the Polarion price and the SunForce size. I have seen other HID lights out there with a managebel form factor and very reasonable price boasting some serious lumens like this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/251071011536?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649 last picture.

Hope that helps.

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Thanks nanomiser....I'll get my brother to have a look at this thread. It's up to him and his buddy as to what they actually want to do of course, but if it was my choice I'd be going for a de-domed SST-90 and a large aspheric ;-)

One day - too many projects (well only one but it's a b*tch) at the moment

- Matt

You are very welcome and please feel free to post any interesting build pics like that gold 7-emitter D-mag in your signature.oo: Provided I can get my next aspherical finished relatively soon I'll post some more pics as well.

Hope your brother and friend find the perfect light. :thumbsup:

Take care,

--Mike

hey nano I visited the threads you linked to in your sig line and was dissapointed to see they were closed long ago. you still making these for sale? cpfm?

Does your bezel on the 4D Mag raise the lens to change the focal length?

Hi peakfreak,
I may still have one or two bezels available; what did you have in mind?

Hi Mr Floppy,
Yes, the bezels are designed to capture the lens directly to the head leaving the stock Mag focusing feature in tact.

that's absolutely insane and I like it!

Glad you like it and thanks for the view. :thumbsup:

Those aspherical beamshots are delicious! Thanks!!

My pleasure; thanks for the post :thumbsup:

you sir are a master.
i on the other hand could not even change an emitter. lol
i would love for you to build me an sst-90 asph throw monster. ive been waiting for one to show up for sale someday but no luck as of yet.
if you would be so kind to do one for me i would pay upfront for all parts needed. and of course your labor. thanks, ron

Nanomiser said:

Thank you for saying so, but I am a mere amateur here at the CPF when it comes to light builds. There are so many other members here who are far more clever and have been gracious enough to help and teach me through the years, who without I could not have come even this far. Knwoing that I have tried to do the same for other folks as they come along.

As for a made-to-order SST-90 aspherical, I have been planning just such a build for myself and have managed to put together most of the parts. I still need to decide on a cell configuration and then have a D-Mag tube custom cut and milled. The best I can offer is to finish my light, post the results and then we can discuss from there about the possibility of a deal.

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sounds good to me, looking forward to it. if i lose track of this thread just shoot me a pm if and when your ready to make a deal, thanks again.